sashinka | observation orientated, with a twist of lime | a blog

Am I Oversensitive? This Time It's Personal
So today's ES magazine day. I feel good, but not in a James Brown way. It's also Ham & High, Economist and JC day: what could be better.

S'just recently, I've been a little worried about the Evening Standard. It's not just that they employ Norman Lebrecht (I've just gone on a little hiatus where I went back to Norman's previous articles that I'd linked, but due to a combination of site redesign and new payment model at thisislondon, it's no dice on the proof front, sorry) to regularly say what he doesn't like about Jews; too Jewish at the Israel rally last summer, that kind of thing.

It's a shame about the Evening Standard, and especially ES magazine, because it has that Ham & High feel to it: over-acheiving North Londoners shouting to the world about their success. I like that. Well, part of me does.

But two weeks ago, takes the biscuit. Thanks to T & L for giving me the nod (and the cutting). You know A Londoner's Diary? At the front of the ES magazine? Two weeks ago, it was Martin Bell, be-white-suited, wittering on about his London, football, and charity muggers. It's a multi-paragraph stream-of-consciousness endevour. Then, ends with this:

"Like many Londoners, I am an incomer. The city has grown on me. I am almost as fond of it now as my native Suffolk. There is only one part of it to which I will never be reconciled - the wailing wall which is the ticket office of Golders Green Underground station..."

Here's a few random disconnected thoughts: Just because you say you are an incomer, doesn't give you licence to talk about me. Are Jews perceived to be such a majority that it's OK to say this? Wailing Wall is a phrase that I don't think Jews have said since 1967, not least because it has a derogatory sense to it. Coupled with the Golders Green reference - I read somewhere that Golders Green has the largest Jewish community in Europe, but where's a web reference when you need one? - makes me think that Martin has something to say to me. Something negative.

So while you rarely hear Jews being told to "go back where you came from" because we look like everyone else - although the older versions are prone to the wearing of sparkly clothes, as we discussed earlier - and also because not everyone is exactly sure where we came from, it feels like a little subtle Jew-baiting is suddenly OK. I'm sure Martin Bell is a very nice guy and some of his best friends blah blah blah but if he'd said "Wembley stinks of curry" or some other such subtlety, surely some editor would have taken an (electronic, doubtless) red pen to the sentence?

There are less than 300,000 Jews in the UK. Less than half a percent of the population. And we can't find most of them. There isn't a Jewish conspiracy. Although our largely immigrant antecedents mean that we're as driven and ambitious as any other "incomer" group, that's generally to the benefit of the wider society.

I'm occassionally accused of being over-sensitive about all manner of matter. Like the other day, about Michael Howard? Maybe my racism-dar and anti-semitism-dar is working overtime, but then my great-grandparents left der heim over a hundred years ago, and if they hadn't had the foresight, probably I wouldn't be here. See, I'm prone to exaggeration, or at least overstating an argument.

So watch what you say. Careful of what you write. And please stop saying there's something of the night about us.